Mexican journalist Adela Navarro was the only person from Latin America to make Foreign Policy magazine's 100 Global Thinkers. The magazine highlights Navarro for her investigative reporting on organized crime and corruption in Mexico despite the mounting violence against journalists in the country.
In 2012 alone, there have been seven killed journalists in Mexico, making it the third most dangerous country in the world for journalists after Somalia and Syria, according to the International Press Institute. Foreign Policy reports that nearly 40 journalists have been killed or disappeared during Mexican President Felipe Calderón's six-year term in office. In 2006, Calderón launched a major offensive against organized crime in the country.
Navarro became the editor of the Tijuana-based weekly Zeta after her predecessors Héctor Félix Miranda and Francisco Ortiz Franco were killed in 1988 and 2004, respectively. "Navarro's magazine practices a kind of journalism both essential and extremely dangerous -- she's following the money," Foreign Policy said.
Navarro, also named one of the 150 most courageous women in the world, always travels with bodyguards to protect her so she can keep "asking the right questions," according to Foreign Policy.
The journalist was ranked at number 76 on the list for breaking with to self-censorship that pervades Mexican journalism as a form of protection against reprisals, reported BBC Mundo.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
